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CineVerse is a weekly film discussion group that explores the universe of cinema. We meet every Wednesday from 7-10 p.m. in Oak Lawn, Ill. at Oak View Center (4625 W. 110th St., click here for directions) in the theater or the room announced on building signage. At every meeting, we discuss a different movie, chosen by our members on a rotating basis. CineVerse is open to anyone 17 years and older. To join our group or for more info, e-mail Erik the founder/moderator at cineversegroup@gmail.com

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Thursday, March 30, 2017

"Still Alice" is a brave but haunting exploration into a vibrant life suddenly interrupted by a very cruel disease: early-onset Alzheimer's. In many ways, it's more terrifying than a modern horror film. But it's also more poignant, human, honest, and life-affirming than the vast majority of big-screen dramas. Our CineVerse group tried to carefully examine this film last evening and came away with the following conclusions:

WHAT IS IRONIC ABOUT ALICE SUCCUMBING TO ALZHEIMER’S?

•She’s a busy teacher, mother and member of her community, which requires you to keep track of and remember a lot of things.

•She’s a linguistics professor; linguistics is the study of language and articulation of it, but a neurodegenerative disease like Alzheimer’s inhibits the use and articulation of language.

•She’s in the prime of her adult life—otherwise healthy and happy at 50; she’s not in her 70s or 80s, which is often when this disease begins to manifest itself.

•The neurologist tells Alice that memory goes faster are people who are more educated.

•Alice’s disease has robbed herself of the ability to choose whether to live or die – consider that she fumbles and drops the suicide pills, and her careful planning to end her life if things got bad enough is all for naught.

WHY IS THE FILM TITLED “STILL ALICE”?

•It could be a declarative statement, as if to say that she’s “still Alice, still herself, despite having serious memory issues.

•Or, it could be more of a questioning title, as if to say, “is she still Alice if she can’t remember her identity and the memories and details that sum up who she is?”

•The word “still” can also suggest lack of movement, immobility, growing stagnant, and remaining stationery while life moves on around you.

•It suggests several themes and questions, such as do we lose our identity and sense of self when we forget who we are and the people that love us? Are we ever truly forgotten, so long as we are remembered and cherished by our loved ones?

WHAT ARE THE DIFFICULTIES THAT COME WITH TRYING TO MAKE A FILM ON THIS SUBJECT?

•First, Alice is succumbing to early-onset Alzheimer’s, not late-onset Alzheimer’s; the latter would require an older character/actor and probably depict a more depressing and debilitating condition. The filmmakers want to approach this topic with honesty and realism, but they have to be careful not to pour on the depressing details too far. By having the affliction happen to an otherwise healthy, vibrant, intelligent and attractive 50-year-old, they keep us from losing interest and keep the character from losing too much dignity.

•To be respectful and honest about the subject matter, you have to treat it seriously. That means very little opportunity for humor, distraction or redemption. This is a degenerative and irreversible disease that is as terrifying as it is shattering.

•The other challenge is avoiding overt sentimentality and mawkishness. It’s easy to try to manipulate the viewer into tears if you want to lay it on thick here. To the filmmakers’ credit, they don’t indulge in melancholy melodrama, poor on the syrupy score, or milk scenes for extra teardrops (case in point: the scene where Alice and her husband reveals the disease to their children could have been more drawn out and emotionally devastating).

•This film also has to serve as a kind of public service to the viewer, because it’s one of the first of its kind that broaches the subject of early onset Alzheimer’s disease; hence, there’s a responsibility here to broaden awareness about this malady and treat the topic with truth and verisimilitude.

•Most importantly, this is not a commercially appealing film for the masses – it’s going to be downright difficult to get butts in the seats for a somber, depressing movie like this.

SOME CRITICS HAVE NOTED THAT JULIANNE MOORE GIVES A MORE SUBTLE, MINIMALIST PERFORMANCE THAN ONE MIGHT EXPECT FOR THIS ROLE. IF YOU AGREE, WHY WAS ADOPTING A SIMPLER, MORE RESTRAINED APPROACH TO THE ROLE THE RIGHT CHOICE?

•Alzheimer’s doesn’t “happen” overnight; gradual changes and losses of memory occur over time, and each realization of a new change or memory loss by the sufferer, even if it’s a small one, probably feels devastating.

•Hence, Moore leaned away from an over-the-top, overplayed performance because she wanted the viewer to pay attention to even the slightest, most subtle differences they notice in her personality and her environment. This acting approach forces us to pay closer attention and look for clues and instigators that tell us she’s been affected by the disease.

•According to critic Mark Jackson, “Moore’s is an understated, minimalist performance, and the tiny increments by which the disease encroaches are slightly reminiscent of the horror genre, where the specter in the background flits by so quickly it almost goes undetected, except that you know you saw something, and that’s slightly hair-raising. These “What did I just see?” moments unsettle because one senses that’s how it would realistically go down."

OTHER REVIEWERS HAVE POSITED THAT THE MOVIE MAY SUFFER FROM FOCUSING TOO MUCH ON ALICE AND PERHAPS NOT ENOUGH ON HER SUPPORTING CAST FAMILY. DO YOU AGREE OR DISAGREE?

•On one hand, the filmmakers may feel a responsibility to represent the personal, devastating experiences of the sufferer, letting us live vicariously through Alice to better understand what it’s like to have this disease. In her Film Comment essay, Molly Haskell said “It’s the intent of this moving film to capture something that for obvious reasons is rarely attempted in memoir or movie, i.e., the experience of the deadly disease from the perspective of the sufferer rather than the caregivers.”

•On the other hand, perhaps it’s a missed opportunity that we aren’t shown more of the husband’s and daughters’ perspectives and how this disease affects them. Blogger Courtney Small felt this way, writing: “…the film lacks that extra dramatic punch to truly make it soar. This is especially evident in how underutilized the supporting cast is. It is understandable that Glatzer and Westmoreland would give Moore plenty of room to develop the nuances of her character, but it is a shame that the likes of Baldwin and Stewart were not given meatier roles to chew on.”

•Arguably, her husband seems a tad too perfect – in real life, there may be a lot more conflict felt and expressed by the significant other.

THEMES AND SYMBOLS USED IN THIS FILM INCLUDE:

•Butterflies and the theme of metamorphosis and rebirth – possibly a rebirth into a whole new but unwanted identity

•Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Matrix – recall that Lewis Carroll’s titular character is given the choice to eat certain things that make her smaller or bigger (essentially changing her identity), and Neo in The Matrix is given a choice to take the red pill or the blue pill, with one representing the choice to remain in his safe but unsatisfying reality and the other representing the choice to go down the rabbit hole into a whole new realm of existence. Likewise, Alice is faced with the choice of whether or not to take a pill to end her life.

•The art of losing, and struggling versus suffering

•Home movies: Alice’s memories are played in her mind like home movies